Having a healthy lifestyle is more important than ever. With the modern world beckoning you in ways that you haven’t experienced before — it is vital to consciously protect your sacred sanctuary. The modern world and all of its beauty and distractions can be alluring, addictive, and painfully unfulfilling at times.
So how do you find balance? And is balance really important? What is sustainability and can it aid us in the quest for true happiness and blissful lives?
The answer isn’t really that hard, although it may seem like a puzzle with missing pieces at times. If you are looking for ways that you can improve your overall health, simply look no further than your lifestyle. Whether you are interested in the environment or your own personal health, sustainability plays a huge role in your emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental health. This blog will explore the role that sustainability plays in your health and wellness, and why you might want to start supporting the sustainable wellness and eco-friendly beauty revolution.
How Does Wellness Relate To Sustainability?
Surprisingly, wellness directly relates to sustainability as we are wired for survival. When survival and what we rely on to survive are threatened, then our health, wellness, and happiness plummet.
Well-being is a complex topic that involves many different facets, such as diet, lifestyle, environment, career, social relationships, mental health, and financial freedom. And sustainability directly correlates to many parts of these well-being facets. Environmental destruction and pollution have detrimental effects on our quality of life and have been proven to be contributing to poor public health.
Research shows that environmental damage and toxic chemicals that are being released into waterways are a risk to public health and the human reproductive system. (1) And that the damage to the food chain through pollution and bioaccumulation is suspected to be causing multiple human health issues. (2, 3)
Shockingly, there have been three separate reports that clarify many mainstream beauty brands sell products that lack reliable safety data. (3) Medical researchers have confirmed that ingredients such as phthalates and also plastics are proven endocrine disruptors and harmful to human health, yet these products remain on shelves worldwide, and the government allows the legal production and sales of these products daily. (2)
When brands do not protect the environment this has a direct impact on quality of life and well-being through three of our main sources of survival — clean water, nutritious food, and a healthy body and mind.
When we talk about true self-care, radical wellness, and sustainability — we’re no longer only referring to the sustainability of our planet or Himalayan salt baths; we’re also consciously considering the health and wellness of every person on our beloved earth.
A more sustainable future is one in which we’re all happier and healthier. And there are a variety of ways that we can tackle the looming self-made problem — from the most obvious routes, like reducing pollution and limiting our environmental footprint, to the more unconventional options like supporting wellness, self-care, and community wellness.
Even though there are many ways to be sustainable, living a sustainable lifestyle sometimes means going against what you’re led to believe is "normal". So there can be a long process of unlearning on your sustainable consumer journey. But one of the easiest ways to contribute to sustainability is still making a conscious decision to choose products that are developed by ethical brands that mindfully produce eco-friendly products.
Contrary to popular belief, living sustainably does not mean giving up things that you enjoy, like fashion items, beauty products, and other luxuries. But it is about finding balance and creating the life you want by making healthy choices for you, your lifestyle, and the planet that you rely on for survival. There are a variety of conscious brands that support sustainability, which means that in this day and age you don’t have to sacrifice the things you love to support long-term human and environmental health.
How Does Sustainability Improve Health?
Sustainability improves health in a number of ways. One of the most obvious ways is through diet. We can easily improve public health by eating healthier foods and drinking cleaner water. This requires us to live in a sustainable environment that supports clean food chains whilst fighting bioaccumulation. The Journal Of Public Health Research noted that sustainable diets are required to achieve homeostasis and the optimal growth and development of all members of society. (5)
Another way that sustainable beauty products, such as natural cosmetics and eco-friendly skincare, help to improve health is by ensuring that only the best ingredients come into contact with the largest organ of the body; the skin. The skin is an organ that not only releases sweat from the body, it is also permeable. Meaning that whatever you put onto your skin, ends up being absorbed into the body.
By using toxic ingredients and harmful chemicals you can directly impact your health and wellness through the associated and proven risks that these ingredients carry. By choosing to minimize your exposure wherever humanly possible, you simultaneously increase your chances of better health and well-being.
Many people find that when they incorporate sustainability into their lives, they feel better about themselves and about the world around them. Humans are fond of having a purpose, feeling like they are part of a community, and contributing to a legacy. So actively advocating for environmental sustainability and choosing to support eco-friendly brands can provide motivation, give life meaning, increase confidence, and encourage a sense of united community.
Sustainability can be defined as the pursuit of well-being for all life on earth. It is a global movement to protect what we call nature and the land of future generations to come. It’s an extremely powerful and sacred movement to contribute to, that can nourish your sense of purpose and increase your spiritual health.
Academic researchers defined wellness as a holistic set of dimensions that require overall harmony for true happiness and well-being to occur; emotional, intellectual, physical, spiritual, social, vocational, financial, and environmental. These dimensions define the human need to contribute to a united community and the commitment to environmental preservation for a sense of well-being. (4)
Sustainable wellness can be achieved by making smarter decisions about the products we buy. While not only looking at how it affects our health but also what it can do to nature. Protecting your means of survival is a natural human drive that can be easily honored through sustainability activism.
Ways That Sustainability Improves Wellness
What Does Sustainable Wellness Mean?
The concept of sustainable wellness is a new and different approach to personal care and beauty. It is not just the next iteration of the wellness movement, but a new paradigm that focuses on people taking responsibility for their health and well-being as well as minimizing the impact they have on the environment.
There are two main components to sustainable wellness: self-care and environmental conservation. Self-care is about paying attention to what you eat, how you live, how you take care of yourself, and what you put onto your body. Environmental conservation is about reducing waste, taking care when disposing of items, whilst minimizing air, water, and land pollution.
Both self-care and environmental conservation are essential for sustainable wellness because they work together to create balance in our lives while also helping us maintain good health. There are many great brands and products which support sustainable wellness, and who truly care about the earth and all those on it.
All of the brands promoted by Fait avec Coeur choose to put people before profit and consciously contribute to sustainability. And you can easily support them and global well-being by swapping out old products that contribute to environmental damage, in place of biodegradable and natural products that improve your health and environmental wellness.
Brands such as UpCircle Beauty and EarthWise Beauty are great examples of sustainable beauty brands that are doing it right. UpCircle Beauty consciously uses as discarded coffee grounds and other byproducts from the food and beverage industries. So not only do they prevent ingredients from going to landfill, they ensure that their ingredients are natural and biodegradable.
UpCircle Beauty’s Organic Face Serum With Coffee Oil uses 98% organic ingredients and also recycled coffee ground. And their Coffee Face Scrub With Citrus Blend uses 99% natural ingredients. Their entire range is cruelty-free and vegan which means that they care about the wellness of all sentient beings. And they refuse to use palm oil due to the variety of issues with sustainable palm oil production.
EarthWise Beauty fills its products with botanical ingredients. But they don’t mindlessly use nature within their business structure. They consciously choose to obtain their ingredients in a sustainable manner such as collecting wildcrafted plants whilst ensuring they leave enough plants and seeds for abundantly recurring wild crops. And they organically home- grow a lot of their natural goodies to prevent transport pollution and land pollution.
The EarthWise Beauty Nap In The Meadow Face Serum is the perfect example of a clean beauty product. This product is certified by the International Aloe Science Council (IASC) for purity, quality, and content. And their Yasuni Face Balm is packed with organic and non-GMO ingredients that preserve and maintain soil quality whilst preventing food chain damage.
Conclusion
It’s interesting to think about just how much sustainability improves your health and wellness. And many of us are worried about how much our actions are having a detrimental impact on our environment. But you can easily find the balance of enjoying your modern luxuries whilst protecting your health and the earth.
You can use this article as inspiration to honor the simple ways in which you can use sustainability to improve your health and wellness. By starting with small, persistent, and conscious actions towards your wellness and the wellness of the earth — you can nourish the dimensions of wellness, unlock deep fulfillment, true happiness, and achieve your goals.
Carmen Lee is a certified yoga teacher, childbirth doula, and wellness coach. She educates on womb wellness, sacred wisdom, and ancestral-connected living. You’ll find her passionately advocating radical self-care and transformational self-empowerment through sustainable beauty and self-love rituals.
Some of the products promoted in our blog are from our online store. Many others are brands we have researched and found to be great examples of sustainable, ethical, and innovative brands in their field, and we don't make any profit from mentioning them in our blog. #CollaborationOverCompetition
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5614862/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29359236/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253722/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5508938/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8419626/
